It is a common medical practice to simultaneously effect drainage from both the bladder and one or more kidneys of a patient. Such procedure is typically accomplished by the employment of a Foley catheter to the bladder, which has a balloon which holds it in place, and one or two ureteral catheters are mechanically secured in place by a support from the Foley catheter.
The applicant, a urologist, has observed that there is simply no available system of both practically and economically managing urine flow when the two types of catheterization are employed.
As matters stand, the physician has two known choices. One is to simply couple the drainage outputs of the Foley and ureteral catheters to separate drainage bags. This, of course, requires two or more complete drainage systems, including two or more drainage bags. This is both costly and cumbersome, but this approach is widely used because of the lack of a better system available. The second choice, the one least generally employed, requires that a hole be punched in the Foley catheter for each ureteral catheter tube, each tube being inserted through the hole in the Foley catheter into the drainage tube leading to the urinary drainage bag. Neither the hole punching nor the insertion step is easy, as the Foley tubing is quite soft and flexible, and several tries may be necessary. This is both frustrating and time-consuming. Equally, or of a greater problem, is the fact that there is often leakage of urine from such improvised connections and contamination of the system by bacteria. Still another problem is that by the insertion into the Foley catheter, a ureteral catheter may kink or otherwise become obstructed and flow through it becomes blocked.
Considering the difficulties with the "cut and insert" method, it is surprising that it has been a method used for at least the past 10 years; and to the applicant's knowledge, no acceptable substitute has been found. Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to provide one.